The Mad Ones: Crazy Joe Gallo and the Revolution at the Edge of the Underworld by Tom Folsom

Tom Folsom's “highly entertaining” take on the saga of Joe Gallo adds to the legacy of the man who was the hero of Bob Dylan's ballad “Joey,” and at the center of Jimmy Breslin’s comic novel

(Weinstein, 224 pages, $24.95)

Joey Gallo never was a major power in the criminal underworld. He ranked as the No. 2 man to his older brother, Larry, in a small Brooklyn, N.Y., gang that specialized in jukeboxes, and in strong-arming bar owners to use and pay for them. But the Gallo crew also provided muscle for the larger, more established Profaci crime family, and “Crazy Joe” played his wiseguy role with aplomb. In 1959, he showed up for nationally televised Senate hearings in a black shirt and dark sunglasses, then did his best to turn Washington’s investigation of organized crime into a joke. The suspected hit man was also impatient with jukebox revenues. In 1960, he and his brothers attempted a coup and set off a bloody gangland war. The Profacis prevailed, but not before Joey Gallo became a folk hero.

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